Spanish MEP named in ‘influence-for-cash’ scandal

Pablo Zalba Bidegain, a Spanish centre-right MEP, is the latest to be accused of submitting changes to EU legislation in exchange for monetary reward.

Zalba is the fourth MEP named in the ‘influence-for-cash’ scandal, which has already led two MEPs, Ernst Strasser, an Austrian centre-right MEP, and Zoran Thaler, a Slovenian centre-left MEP, to resign their seats.

A third, Adrian Severin, a Romanian centre-left MEP, has so far refused to step down, but was forced to quit the centre-left Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament.

The UK’s Sunday Times newspaper yesterday (27 March) reported that Zalba had similarly agreed to submit amendments to draft EU legislation at the request of reporters posing as lobbyists.

The Spanish MEP was approached to make changes to a draft directive intended to protect investors who lose money, in exchange for a possible salaried role on an advisory board or other payments. The newspaper reported that Zalba delayed a decision on accepting that role until he got approval from his party.

‘No reason to resign’

A spokesman for the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP) group said Zalba had not taken any money for the amendments and as such there was no reason for him to resign.

“He did not accept money or compensation,” said the spokesman, adding that the accusations against Zalba were “not of the same quality” as those against the other three MEPs.

The spokesman added that Zalba had already been in contact with Joseph Daul, the EPP group leader, and Diana Wallis, a Liberal MEP and a Parliamant vice-president, who launched an internal investigation last week after the initial story was published.

Zalba was offered up to €100,000 in fees per year in exchange for pushing through requested amendments to legislation – as were Strasser, Thaler and Severin. The reporters approached 60 MEPs in all as part of an undercover investigation into alleged corruption.

Zalba, who sits on the Parliament’s international trade committee, recently guided through the approval of a safeguard clause attached to the EU’s free-trade accord with South Korea. He is also a substitute member on the Parliament’s economic and monetary affairs committee.

Officials from the office of Jerzy Buzek, the Parliament’s president, said it was so far unclear if Buzek would meet Zalba later this week to discuss the allegations against him. The president met Severin last Thursday (24 March) and asked him to resign.

Buzek said on Thursday that he would contact national authorities in Austria, Romania and Slovenia to discover whether they planned to start legal investigations into the allegations.

The president said the Parliament would take a “zero-tolerance” approach to corruption. An internal investigation is already under way over the allegations against the initial three MEPs, as is a review of the Parliament’s rules of procedures.

Paul de Clerck from Alter-EU, an alliance for lobbying transparency, said Zalba should resign immediately. He said the scandal had shown that rules on transparency and ethics in the Parliament were “far too weak”. MEPs, he added, must draft tougher rules, including a ban on lobbying and other secondary jobs “that lead to a conflict of interests for MEPs”.